Taliban confirm TTP deputy Sajna killed in drone strike

PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban confirmed on Monday that their deputy leader was killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike last week and said they had appointed a new deputy in his place.

A pair of suspected U.S. missile strikes killed the militant leader, Khalid Mehsud, also known by his alias Sajna, on Thursday last week in Afghanistanâs Paktika province, near the border with Pakistan, Pakistani security officials said.

But there were conflicting accounts of the drone attack from Pakistani intelligence officials and militant sources.

A spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan told Reuters the drone strike was in the North Waziristan region, on the Pakistani side of the border.

âWe confirm that deputy head of the TTP Khalid Mehsud died in a drone strike,â said the spokesman, Mohammad Khurasani.

He said TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah appointed a commander called Mufti Noor Wali Wali to replace their dead deputy.

Militant sources said Wali, known by the nickname Ghar Starga, is a ruthless leader with experience working in urban.

He studied in a seminary in Faisalabad city in the heartland province of Punjab and recently wrote a book eulogizing the founder of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a 2009 drone attack.

U.S. drone strikes in the border region have picked up since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, though they are a long way off their peak in 2010.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained since Jan. 1 when Trumpâs denounced Pakistani âlies and deceitâ over its support for the Afghan Taliban and their allies.

Last month, the United States suspended about $2 billion assistance to Pakistan.